to feel its wrong to buy a copy of a popular mobile phone

[wilsonq2]

Hi all, I want a new phone. I don't need it but it would be nice, had my last one for 2 years and its good but want just a better everything and at 300 I think I've had a good run with it.

I want a top end mobile, they are about 600. Dh is saying I should buy a copy as the hardware is the same but it only costs 150. He says there is nothing illegal or immoral about it as I would just be paying for the manufacturing costs and not advertising and shareholders.

He likens it to shopping in lidl and getting sprinter crisps, rather than the other brand.

Aibu to think this all still sounds quite wrong?

[Catsarebastards]

Do you mean buy another brand of phone from a shop that looks like the top brand but is much cheaper?

[SmilesandPilesOfPresents]

Your DH is right.

[bettyswa]

Name the phone. If it is an iPhone there are no alternatives. Unless it is made by Apple it won't run IOS.

However if it is Android there are a ton of excellent phones from smaller companies that you might not have heard of which equal the named brands.

[wilsonq2]

Well it looks almost identical to the real one (s5), just with a different logo on it. It isn't the fruit phone but the other company. It looks like they have tried to copy everything but the logo.

[Catsarebastards]

Are you talking about a phone that is available for sale legally in a legitimate phone shop or online? Or are you buying off a lorry?

[VivaLeBeaver]

Your dh is right in that it isn't counterfeit goods.

Whether its as good as an s5 or not I have no idea. Probably not.

[Siarie]

Depends if you are talking about a counterfeit or just a similar product. I really do not agree with counterfeit for various reasons, safety, moral, social etc.

But if you are talking about just s cheaper phone that isn't mimicking a branded phone then that's ok. Although personally I buy said expensive phone brand for it's build quality, operating system and customer service when things go wrong.

I would NOT recommend buying a counterfeit phone given that those products may not have been put through the same safety requirements.

[FraidyCat]

I had never heard of copying phones, but apparently it is a thing. I found a review comparing a copy with the original:-

www.mobilegeeks.com/samsung-galaxy-s5-vs-s5-clone-no-1-s7-ultimate-battle/

[Mrsjayy]

My friends sons dad bought him a copy phone from china (I think) it broke within a month and nobody would fix it for him waste of money friend said.

[wilsonq2]

Yes like that cat, although dh says now that its been out a while they are much better unlike that review. Apparently it has the same octapus and screen pixels.

The no guantee I think is the main issue, 150 would be wasted where as for 600 it does have a two year guarantee

[VivaLeBeaver]

Why don't you get an s4 rather than an s5? I'd really have thought that an s4 is better than a copy phone. I had to upgrade from an s3 to an s4 after a toilet dunking incident and I can't tell the difference in performance. I can't imagine an s5 is that much better than an s4.

Get one on contract for what maybe £20 a month, maybe less. With minutes, etc so hopefully you won't have to pay anything else. No upfront cost. If you buy a handset for £600 you'd then have to pay for all your calls and texts.

[wilsonq2]

Hi viva, well that's exactly the reason I want the s5 as its fully waterproof! Not really into contracts as no signal at home and pay as you go is so cheap I probably only use 20 quid a year on three

[VivaLeBeaver]

Oooh, I didnt know the s5 was waterproof. Is the copy phone also waterproof?

[wilsonq2]

Apparently so, although obviously that is dubious.... Its supposed to be 97% identical, so tempting but I know its risky

[ThePinkOcelot]

Yeh, but if you are paying £600 for a payg phone, you are paying more than you would for a contract.

[TheFinalNamechange]

I had a "clone phone" earlier in the summer that I bought primarily because it was dual sim. It was an almost identical copy of the s5 except the dimensions were very sightly different. It lasted about 2 months before the LCD display died and I have had no response from the seller I bought it from. Until it died, it was a fantastic phone but I now have a Samsung s5 mini complete with waterproofness (?!) and peace of mind. Caveat emptor and all that...

[wilsonq2]

Thanks, does sound like even if its 1\4 the price its probably overpriced

[Iggly]

Get a secondhand phone.

Or on contract.

But no way would I get a clone. It would break or be crap IMO.

Or, and this is radical, you don't need to get an "iPhone". There are other better phones out there.

[Petallic]

I wouldn't bother - I visit friends abroad and they all have the Chinese-copy versions of Nokia/samsung etc and they don't work anywhere near as well. I'm always asked to bring secondhand phones with me as it's so expensive to get the genuine versions there. Buy a secondhand phone from eBay/high street instead.

[Blueskyfluffyclouds]

Iggly - op isn't in about getting an iPhone, it's a copy of a Samsung (I think)

I wouldn't get the clone though, just because If out breaks then it would be difficult or impossible to fix and replace.

Try and get a refurbished handset or second hand phone maybe?

[funkybuddah]

i work wi th mobiles and have seen copies of the latest Samsung for example. Looks great but has no internal memory, the memory card slot was missing and it wouldn't connect to wifi. Lots of little anomalies that rendered the phone a pretty brick.

[Methe]

What's the point in having a fancy phone of you only use 20 quid a year's worth of call and it doesn't work in your house?

[DogCalledRudis]

I wouldn't. Probably will be shite that nobody would repair.

[BertieBotts]

I wouldn't. They aren't as good - they just aren't. I used to work in CeX and you can see the shitty quality of them immediately next to the real thing, although it's not always obvious if you're not comparing direct. And what funky said about the lack of features too. Plus they might not be proper android - I don't know if you've seen the cheap tablets you can buy on ebay/amazon, but they often have bootleg copies of android which can't access the play store properly and don't support the most up to date versions of apps. (Wifi problems seem extremely common too - I wonder what that's about? You'd think that would be the easiest thing to get right).

Chinese copy batteries also aren't safe and can bloat, overheat and even explode. Although actually I'm hearing stories about Samsung batteries doing this recently which worries me. But genuine Samsung/HTC/etc batteries are at least CE tested which is much more rigorous than any testing the Chinese ones will go through.

If you want a cheaper phone just go for a lower grade model - you don't need an S5, get the Galaxy Ace 3 (Is the GA4 out yet?), or a mid range HTC like one of the Desire models. TBH the top range phones are irritating to use anyway, they are too big for the average woman to use one handed (because our hands are smaller, not because we're somehow too dainty for technology ) and the screens are so massive and dazzling that they drain the battery life within hours. I recommend the lower grade (mid range) Samsungs over HTC, but your personal choice.